[SaffronTurtle] Goes Cold Turkey

[SaffronTurtle]

[DAY 20] January 23rd
 Quest 1 - Hydration                         Success
 Quest 2 - Maintain Exercise Habit      N/A
 Quest 3 - Cold Turkey Diet Change    Success
 Life Quest - Gratitude Journal           Success

 

I have decided the main focus of my next challenge will be building a study schedule for when I go back to uni with the other goals supporting this 'main goal'. One thing I have never understood is why we are encouraged to do 3-4 changes each challenge, istead of focusing all out attention on one. All habit change information that I have read warns against making too many changes too fast and failing at them all..

[Asa Pond]

 

I have decided the main focus of my next challenge will be building a study schedule for when I go back to uni with the other goals supporting this 'main goal'. One thing I have never understood is why we are encouraged to do 3-4 changes each challenge, istead of focusing all out attention on one. All habit change information that I have read warns against making too many changes too fast and failing at them all..

 

This is a good idea. 3-4 changes is a lot if all of them are new. Finish strong with this one (which it looks like you are going to do great!), so you can launch yourself on the right track!!

 

(And enjoy that party tonight! (Or - I guess your time you might be at it now??))

[SaffronTurtle]

Thanks AsaPond, we had a ball. Much drunken Halo was played. Headaches and sleep ensued. 
 
I am sorry I haven't had much of a presence here! Trying get back into the rhythm and maintain my habits.
 
[DAY 21] January 24th
 Quest 1 - Hydration                         Success
 Quest 2 - Maintain Exercise Habit      Success
 Quest 3 - Cold Turkey Diet Change    Success
 Life Quest - Gratitude Journal           Success

 

WEEK 3

[DAY 22] January 25th 

Quest 1 - Hydration                         Success
 Quest 2 - Maintain Exercise Habit      N/A
 Quest 3 - Cold Turkey Diet Change    EXEMPT  (I will give myself marks out of 27 instead of 28)
 Life Quest - Gratitude Journal           FAIL        (I forgot to do this )

 

[DAY 23] January 26th 
 Quest 1 - Hydration                         Success
 Quest 2 - Maintain Exercise Habit       FAIL       (I slept for basically the whole day and focused on repairing)

 Quest 3 - Cold Turkey Diet Change    Success
 Life Quest - Gratitude Journal           Success

 

[DAY 24] January 27th 
 Quest 1 - Hydration                         Success
 Quest 2 - Maintain Exercise Habit      Success/Make-up for yesterday       

 Quest 3 - Cold Turkey Diet Change    Success
 Life Quest - Gratitude Journal           Success

 

[DAY 25] January 28th 
 Quest 1 - Hydration                         Success
 Quest 2 - Maintain Exercise Habit      N/A

 Quest 3 - Cold Turkey Diet Change    Success
 Life Quest - Gratitude Journal           Success

 

Now that that speed-bump in my plans has passed I can focus on finishing well and on expanding on the details for the next challenge. 

[peelout]

Looks like an awesome week.  

[Maeghaan]

Drunken Halo! Aww, I haven't done that in so long

[SaffronTurtle]

@peelout, Thank you!
 
@Maeghaan, It is definitely lots of fun! Although not something I would like to do every weekend. I though sober Halo was entertaining but this was some next level shenanigans. 
 

[DAY 26] January 29th 
 Quest 1 - Hydration                         Success
 Quest 2 - Maintain Exercise Habit      Success
 Quest 3 - Cold Turkey Diet Change    Success
 Life Quest - Gratitude Journal           not yet

 

Today I had a chat with my aunt who does a lot of work in nutrition and gut health and scientific things I am clueless about and she has recommended a bunch of things I should start changing to fix, well, every physical related issue I have from bad skin to lack and energy and focus. Holistic healing and stuff. So now I have I guideline for how I want to progress food-wise in following challenges!! I'm really pumped about this.

 

From my conversation these are some possible habits I can choose to implement in the future challenges:

• Reserve a day on the weekend for cooking the next week's food
• Learn to cook something new each week
• Substitute cows milk for rice/coconut/soy milk       --------> Eventually phase out dairy 
• Substitute processed wheat bread for sourdough/gluten-free bread      --------> Eventually phase out wheat
• Substitute cooking vegetable oils for ghee/butter/coconut oil
• Take fish-oil supplements daily
• Substitute drinking chocolate for cocoa
• Make a batch of water kefir every second day
• Make a batch of kombucha each week
• Make a batch of coconut yoghurt every week

There are more but that is the jist of my brainstorm I had just now. This challenge's food goal was an experiment but by no means a sustainable change. Cold turkey is not going to be making lasting lifestyle changes that I am looking for.

 

In terms of my goal/s for next challenge I realised today I have a month left before uni starts and establishing a study habit would be pointless until I am back at uni. So I have more options again. I will have to have a think and try prioritise which ONE goal is most important to focus on next.

[SnowOwl]

My own two cents as you are thinking about things:

 

I can't digest dairy so have been dairy free for a number of years. Coconut milk is the best sub if you are baking with it, but make sure it is unsweetened or everything will taste strongly of coconut, plus sugar is bad. It has enough fat in it that your recipes don't need to be altered, just sub it for cow's milk 1:1. Also, it's not sprayed with pesticides and it's always gmo-free.

 

I am also working towards greatly reduced sugar consumption and have found success with homemade treats as I can slowly reduce the sugar in them without having to go without my treats! As I adjust to lower sugar content, super-sweet things don't taste as good anymore making them easier to avoid. I can cut the sugar in half in every cookie/cake/muffin/etc recipe without anyone noticing as long as I cut the salt down too, and then can sometimes reduce that by half again once our taste buds adjust to consuming reduced sugar. My next step is to learn to do some baking that uses honey instead of refined sugar.

 

And, not that you asked, but I would recommend doing the cooking day before attempting some of those other goals. So much sugar and salt and bad things goes into packaged foods that you might see the biggest health benefits just by cooking as much of your food as possible. It's a challenge though - I'm a housewife and still find it's hard to cook everything from scratch. 

 

I may try to go in with you on a few of these food goals in the future, they look great! 

[Asa Pond]

I need to start prioritizing food goals, but its sooooo haaaaard (stated in a very whingy voice because I'm actually a 12 year old in a 23 year old body). Those look like awesome goals! You will be my hero and I will be coming to you for all the tips!  

[SaffronTurtle]

Thank you SnowOwl! I really appreciate the help and advice.
 
I have decided that my goal for the next challenge will be to cook the week's food the Sunday before, I think I will make an event of it, maybe rope in the help of a friend if I can bribe them with freshly baked paleo cookies or whatever it is I'm making for treats. I was leaning towards this one already as it makes the most sense, I can plan my meals so that they have less dairy, wheat, sugar etc, two birds with one stone kind-of deal. I'm glad you agree I should do it first.
 
Most of my dairy right now comes from milk in hot chocolates and yoghurt, which I can swap for coconut yoghurt, I'll have to add that to my list of food habit changes. I don't cook much with milk or with anything at all now but I guess that is about to change! I'll keep that tip in mind.
 
It is extremely reassuring to hear that these sugar craving do subside and your perception of what is tasty actually changes once you get to having less sugar. It would be so nice to not have an internal battle with myself every time I see chocolate. That would free up so much willpower that I could spend on other things. 
 
I like your idea of subbing pre-made treats for homemade ones, do you have any favourite recipes?
 
As part of my conversation with my aunt she has forwarded me on some e-books about the GAPS diet, bone broths, gelatin and homemade treats. The GAPS diet seems quite full on. I haven't finished them yet. Today I am building a list of really basic recipes for a meal plan and sourcing a local, organic butcher so I can get bones for broth (which I feel is going to be a large part of my diet in the coming weeks). 
 
Today is the last day of this challenge in my timezone so I will post/edit in a summary at the beginning of the thread very soon. This evening.

 [DAY 27] January 30th 

 Quest 1 - Hydration                         Success
 Quest 2 - Maintain Exercise Habit      N/A
 Quest 3 - Cold Turkey Diet Change    Success

 Life Quest - Gratitude Journal           Success

 

 [DAY 28] January 31th 

 Quest 1 - Hydration                         not yet
 Quest 2 - Maintain Exercise Habit      Success
 Quest 3 - Cold Turkey Diet Change    not yet

 Life Quest - Gratitude Journal           not yet

[SaffronTurtle]

 

I need to start prioritizing food goals, but its sooooo haaaaard (stated in a very whingy voice because I'm actually a 12 year old in a 23 year old body). Those look like awesome goals!   You will be my hero and I will be coming to you for all the tips! 

 

Lololol. You and me both. In my experience breaking habits is harder than making habits.  I think that by abstaining from whatever nice feeling thing you are addicted to, you are constantly uncomfortable and only doing the thing is a relief. On the other hand when you're making a habit there is only much resistance when you actually have to DO the thing, then you're back to normal. I hope that made sense. I don't think it did. 

 

I will be sure to recount all my interesting tips and things I find out along the way here that way everyone can learn  

[SnowOwl]

I have a totally sweetener free banana oat muffin recipe and also a low-sugar oatmeal cookie recipe - I'll find them soon and share.

 

(And a dark chocolate cake recipe that has lots of sugar, but only half of what was in the original recipe.)

[SaffronTurtle]

Yes please!! You're a god SnowOwl. Thank you

[SaffronTurtle]

I'll put this here because it makes sense to put it at the end but it is also at the beginning of the thread. 

 

CHALLENGE SUMMARY

 

 Quest 1 - Hydration                        28/28          A 
 Quest 2 - Maintain Exercise Habit      12/13         B
 Quest 3 - Cold Turkey Diet Change    23/27         B
 Life Quest - Gratitude Journal           28/28         A

 

Which reminds me I didn't make any stats for this challenge...Oh well. Next time. They're not in my signature anyways.

 

I think I managed to do a good job this challenge, it was difficult because I was trying to establish 3 goals while experimenting with going cold turkey on removing bad foods. Probably a bad idea. Definitely a bad idea. But, I did learn things from it. 

 

1. I need some form of sugar to wean me off from what I normally have. Hence, I have made some paleo coconut chocolate fudge for when I really need a fix. 

 

2. Most or all of my successful habits, ie. the ones that have lasted for longer than the challenge I started them in, began as placeholders.  Like doing only 5x reps and building from there when I started exercising. So while I really want results now I have to be patient and simplify the habits to their most basic basic form. 

 

3. It is ok to adjust habits if things change or they are not well written/thought out.

 

4. Planning my meals is a big issue, not knowing what I am going to eat and trying to make sure I have the ingredients is important and something I have to work on. I need recipes, a shopping list and a plan.

 

5. In future, if I skip a day it's still a pass if I don't miss the next day. If I skip and make up for it the next day twice or more I start losing points.

 

I'm going to finish up my next challenge and start a new thread today (I didn't realise we didn't have a break between challenges, oops). Thank you for being so amazing and supportive this challenge, you guys are seriously the best. I look forward to stalking your threads next challenge!!

[SnowOwl]

Here are a couple recipes (in American measurements)

 

Banana Oat Muffins

 

Mix together:

3/4c whole wheat flour

3/4c white flour

1 heaping cups oats

2t baking powder

1t baking soda

1/4t salt

(you can add a 1/4c of sugar here if you want, I don’t add any)

 

In another bowl mix:

1 egg

3/4c coconut milk

1/3c canola oil

1/2t vanilla

2 mashed bananas

 

Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients and stir.

 

Divide into greased muffin tin and bake ~18 minutes at 400F

 

 

Black Cake (adapted from the back of the cocoa powder box - I use hershey’s special dark cocoa)

 

Stir together:

1c sugar

1 3/4c flour

1c cocoa powder (this makes a very dark chocolate cake, you can reduce the cocoa a bit if you want it lighter/sweeter.)

1 1/2t baking powder

1 1/2t baking soda

pinch of salt

 

Add:

2 eggs

1c coconut milk

1/2c veg oil

2t vanilla

 

Mix well

 

Stir in1c boiling water.

 

Pour into greased and floured pan (9x13 baking pan, 2 - 9†rounds, cupcakes, etc)

 

Bake ~30 minutes at 350F

 

Frosting is up to you. Sometimes I use the recipe on the back of the box, but with less sugar, sometimes I’ll make a ganache, mostly I just don’t frost it.